The U.S. Air Force is making use of iPads instead of heavy flight manuals, and it's saving quite a bit of money in doing so.

The Air Force said it would save over $50 million in the next 10 years thanks to its recent deployment of iPads. The iPads eliminate the need to print thousands of flights manuals on paper, which proves to be heavy on planes.

According to Major Brian Moritz, Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) program manager, removing all of the paper alone results in $750,000 in fuel savings annually (since the extra weight requires extra fuel). Weight varies from 250 pounds in a four-person C-17 up to 490 pounds in a C-5 with 10 crewmembers.

Add this to print and distribution costs, and Moritz said the Air Force is saving $5.7 million per year with the iPads. This equates to over $50 million in a 10-year period.

The Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) scored a $9.36 million contract to deploy 18,000 iPads. Today, AMC aircrews are using about 16,000 of those iPads while the other 2,000 are being distributed amongst other Air Force units.

Aside from just cost savings, the iPads also prove to be helpful in finding information quickly. The keyword search alone helps pilots work more efficiently in emergency situations instead of searching through dense manuals.

Apple has been working its way into the military through more than just iPads, though (and to more branches than just the Air Force). In March of this year, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) planned to purchase 650,000 iOS devices. This included 120,000 iPads, 100,000 iPad minis, 200,000 iPod Touches, and over 20,000 iPhones.

The purchase was to replace old BlackBerry handsets.

Earlier this month, the DOD approved the use of Samsung smartphones running a secure version of Android called Knox. Other versions of Android and Apple's iOS are currently awaiting approval as well. These decisions are expected to be made by the end of May.

quote: Or they could have saved 60 million by going with Android tablets that cost half as much and would able to be customized to only allow for flight manual usage ;)

Why would any serious user of a tablet for professional, business or educational reasons select an Android tablet? No OS upgrades, riddled with malware and no software plus Apple offers nifty mass iDevice configuration tools for corporate IT managers.

While some have been busy blathering self delusional drivel about the iPad 'only being for consumption' it's been quietly but rapidly taking over large chunks of the enterprise, business and education IT markets. It's a bit like Windows used to be in corporate IT, it didn't matter how good the alternatives were nobody got fired for buying Wintel PCs, well now nobody gets fired for buying iPads (or iPhones). It's hardly surprising given that iOS is performing so much better than Android as a platform.

If Apple do introduce fingerprint recognition in iDevices soon, and it's brisk acquisition of Authentec in July 2012 would seem to be a strong indicator that it will, then it will cement it's position as the mobile solution for serious corporate use.

Even if all of what you say is true, and I'm not saying it is, I've got some questions for you.

Why would you even need to upgrade the OS if the purpose is just to look at the manual?

How would malware get on the device if they aren't even supposed to, and might even have the ability taken away to, download and install other software?

Why would software selection matter if they were only viewing a manual? Quality notwithstanding, since that is not what you were talking about.

And why would any amount of gadgetry matter when viewing a manual? Do you need a USB powered light-up magnifying glass or something?

Fingerprint scanning is a joke in itself. It's been proven to be pretty crappy security. It's one of those things that sounds better in theory than it is in reality. We all have a unique fingerprint to no one unauthorized should be able to use your device. However, if you're trying to get a fingerprint off someone it's not terribly difficult.

Having multiple lines of security would be the way to go, but most users aren't going to go through all that every time they unlock a device.

You don't have to convince me I'm wrong, you have to convince the people buying tablets in the enterprise, government and education, people who have to make objective judgments about value for money, reliability and performance, people who are accountable for their actions, and those people are voting with their wallets and buying iPads.

As for fingerprint recognition - lets see what Apple actually does in this area, although I thought it was telling that Apple, not known for big acquisitions, spent $365 million on Authentec, a firm whose technology Samsung had been planning to use.